ENGLAND will have to wait until near the end of today’s 2014 Brazil World Cup draw to find out their qualifying opponents.

The draw will start at 7pm BST in Rio tonight, with European groups being drawn at 8.20pm.

There will be 53 European teams drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five. There are six different pots in order of ranking. England are in pot one – the top nine nations. The worst teams, including Wales, are in pot six.

All the teams in pot six will be allocated a group first, then countries in pot five, which means the teams in pot one will not know their fate until the end of the draw.

The group winners each qualify for the finals and the best eight runners-up of the nine groups will go into two-legged play-offs.

The worst case would see Fabio Capello’s side drawing France, Switzerland, Scotland, Macedonia and Iceland.

France demonstrated in their friendly victory over England in November that their World Cup collapse last summer has been forgotten and they are again a team to fear.

The Swiss were runners-up to Spain at this summer’s European Under-21 Championships and are building a strong side, while a trip to Hampden Park would present a tough test.

Scotland’s Darren Fletcher would relish a clash with England.

“I would love to play them,” said the Scotland skipper. “I remember the Euro play-off at Hampden and Wembley in 1999 and it was fantastic to beat them, although we lost on aggregate to two goals from Paul Scholes.”